GS302: Theories of Cultural Studies (Spring 2012)

As I take golf on as a case study, i feel this unique association with the topic because my summer internship is with the Metropolitan Golf Association, a similar association to OneAsia. These associations, are nonprofit organizations, and seek to encourage members to play golf at a competitive level. However, the geographical stretch that OneAsia provides to, dwarfs the size of the MGA where I work at, yet we still have similar size memberships. OneAsia provides golf to Australia, China, Indonesia, Korea and Thailand. Supplying tournaments akin to the USGA’s(United States Golf Association) US Open in all of there five member countries, reveals OnAsia’s size in just a minor aspect of there responsibilities. I understand the vast responsibilities that go into providing these vents because i have worked at a association that does it on a vastly smaller scale.

Who are the members?

How are all these coordinated?

How many employees?

Where are headquarters?

What is the employment hierarchy within OneAsia?

What do chinese think of the expanding golf industry?

http://www.worldgolf.com/newswire/browse/71123-OneAsia-Appoints-Tenniel-Chu-Secretary-General

Present- Leslie, Julia, Alexandra

Scribe-Leslie and Julia

Our group decided to further research the “Arab Spring.” Protests and demonstrations swept throughout North Africa and the Middle East starting in the spring of 2011.  To date, rulers have been forced from power in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen.  Other civil uprisings have been present in Bahrain, Algeria, Iraq, Morocco, and Oman.  Currently, the media and international community is concerned with the extreme use of violence in Syria; the death tolls are unknown but all of them are in the thousands.  The protests have shared techniques of mostly civil resistance involving strikes, demonstrations, marches, and rallies, as well as the use of social media to organize, communicate, and raise awareness in the face of state attempts at repression and internet censorship.  We decided to research the effect and evidence of how social media affected the revolutions.  We found various articles written on the subject and found this one particularly interesting…“the total rate of tweets from Egypt about political change in that country ballooned from 2,300 a day to 230,000 a day.” “Ironically, government efforts to crack down on social media may have incited more public activism, especially in Egypt.”

http://www.washington.edu/news/articles/new-study-quantifies-use-of-social-media-in-arab-spring

However, Julia stated she attended various panel discussions in Washington D.C. during the beginning of the Arab Spring where the speakers had different opinions on the subject. Julia- The first conference I went to with my foreign policy class focused on the uprisings in Tunisia.  The speakers ranged from U.N. officials to professors; however, there were no Tunisians present.  When asked if any of them thought the protests would spread, all of them claimed they would not.  One speaker claimed because of Tunisia’s unique location and relationship with Europe, the protests would not spread.  A month later our class attended another conference and a student asked the very question we are discussing: “Did social media play a significant part in the uprisings erupting over the region?”  The speakers claimed, while it did play a role it did not play a significant role because many Egyptians do not have internet, let alone twitter/facebook.  It seems there are various opinions and analysis on the use of social media in the Arab Spring.

Julia’s group read the article by Naira Antoun, which examined the narration of the Arab Spring. The article asks how one can narrate the Arab Spring if they are not present.  “It is not simply stealing narrative, but stealing revolution.” How can the speakers at the panels Julia attended speak for the revolutions if they were not present? All of the speakers were white, is this surprising?  Said would most likely say no; the West sees the world as the East versus the West, separate and different.  The title brings up the point that Westerns saw the Arab Spring as simply that: Arabic, ignoring the fact several of the uprisings were in North African countries.  The West is scholarly and developed, which is associated with democracy.  Therefore, Westerns feel they have the knowledge and expertise to analyze such uprisings.  Said discusses how the West claims to know more about “the Orient”, better than they know themselves.  What are your opinions on the narration of the Arab Spring?

Tattoo’s were not introduced to Europe until naval expedition discovered the Polynesian and Oceanic people in the 1700’s.  The Polynesians would prick themselves with a sharp object and then throw black powder over the bleeding, which would leave behind a design.  The natives called this practice ‘tataow’ but the English explorers changed it to tattoo.  This word became universalized to represent the practice of puncturing the body to leave behind a stained design.  Orientalism clearly had a role in Europeans first encounters with these ‘painted people’.  The Polynesians and Oceanic people were depicted as savages who wore little to no clothes and had these tattoos covering large parts of their bodies, including their faces.  Europeans saw these people as primitive, so they viewed themselves as superior making the  discourse of power uneven, and thus allowing Europeans to produce stereotypes about the Oceanic peoples and the Polynesians.  This can be seen by the enslavement of the ‘Painted Prince from miangis”.  He was captured when his ship was blown of course and was later bought by Dampier (an Englishmen).  Dampier never saw the painted prince in his own culture and certainly never considered him an equal.  Instead Dampier put his captives ‘painted body’ on display for all of England to marvel at until the prince eventually died.  The Polynesians soon began to attack the European explorers which led to an even more disgust for the tattooed people.  Tattoos began to be associated with savager of the Oceanic and Polynesian people.

Comment from Allison: Introduction to Case Study Analysis: “Kony 2012”

(My addendums are bolded and are throughout her comment which has been left in Plain Text.)

Allison is currently studying with Saint Lawrence’s Kenya Semester Program. She is working with a Community Development Organization, S.O.U.L in Jinja, Uganda.  Currently, I am collaborating with her to find local critiques and responses to “Kony 2012” in the country. I thank her for everything she has brought to this discussion and to what she will continue to bring from her experiences in East Africa, as well as from her continued interest in the Invisible Children Campaign.

I wanted to send you a bit of info that sprang up in response to the Kony video in Kenya. This article http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/-/440808/1373470/-/m80c2bz/-/index.html is really interesting…kind of gets another perspective in regards to the film.

I have selected quotes from the article to discuss: Response to Kony 2012 – The Daily Nation

“A former abductee who had undergone a horrific amputation at the hands of Kony wondered why all the commentators in the video where white.”

“The reason why the LRA continues,” he says, “is that its victims – the civilian population of the area – trust neither the LRA nor the government forces.”

“So now there’s a real possibility that American drones will extend their reach from the Horn of Africa to Central Africa, thanks to a bunch of ill-informed American do-gooders who wanted to save Africans.”

“As Russell nurses himself back to mental health, he must ponder the consequences of his irresponsible and self-centred response to a complex African conflict.”

Also, there was an article in the East African Times a few days ago (unfortunately, there’s no online database for that paper), entitled “Stop bitching about Kony 2012, we live in McWorld.”

Out of all of the news coverage that I’ve seen here in Kenya, I feel like this argument is one of the most rational ones. Basically, it discusses the condemnation from African intellectuals based on the fact that Kony is a “Western oversimplification of a complex issue” and it “presents Africans as victims waiting to be saved and not as agents of their own historical narratives.”

Is Joseph Kony a “western oversimplification of a complex issue?”

The author of the article argues that based on “McWorld,” the African experience will be told by many different perspectives and many different players. He has one line that really sums up his argument: “The African experience has grown beyond the prescriptive terms of ideologies based on cultural nationalism, and the phenomenon of McWorld will mean that cultural autonomy is no longer a feasible concept.”

Are we, as a society, ignorant about “Africa” and what are our motives in wanting to care?

This question above has made me critical of my own motives and interests in East Africa. In regards to my own positionality, my first visit to Uganda in 2009 was for a summer research trip with Clarkson University. Our group observed the impacts that Micro-finance loans have had in/and around Kenya and Uganda on the East African Community.

Why did I choose to visit this country I knew nothing about? Was it my interest in the unknown? I believe it was. But, after becoming somewhat familiar with the country, I believe I know why my interest in East Africa has continued to grow. I believe that every person in the world deserves equal access to basic public goods (i.e. education, healthcare, accessibility to clean water and food.) I know that my interests in social equality will develop and they will go far beyond my own academic or humanitarian career.

Similar to the group of guys who founded Invisible Children, I was looking for an adventure and found something I never want to forget. These guys that founded Invisible Children traveled away from the United Stated to go explore the “unknown,” and whether or not it is “white privilege” that made both of our original trips possible, I believe what matters is how we use these experiences to inform ourselves and those people around us who do not have the opportunity to explore the world in order to create an understanding of the complexities in our globalized society.

Allison Paludi has posed some very critical points that I would like for us all to think about. I really look forward to addressing these questions, in the context of Theories of Cultural Studies in my upcoming case study paper.



The self-help movement in the United States has taken some compelling turns since it became a force in the market in the early 1970s. Beginning  with books with a rather specific aim, it has since garnered a massive market share, offering guidance to individuals in all walks of life and through many modes of media such as the web, audio, TV programs, and various journal outlets. Books still remain the most popular form though, nearly single-handedly propping up the contemporary publishing industry.

I would like to explore, in brief, some of the turns the self-help industry has taken, and make the argument that the industry has been reflective of – and perhaps contributed considerably to – the production of the “American self.” I would also like to argue that there is a new emergent discourse – a new type of American self – being produced by industry discourse. But in this post I will touch briefly on methodology and the theoretical framework I will be utilizing.

The self-help industry emerged along with another extremely significant cultural phenomena – the mainstreaming of various behavioural sciences such as psychology, psychiatry, and psychoanalysis. Michel Foucault and his contemporaries linked the rise and aims of these disciplines with current liberal democratic political objectives. He claimed that the “psy” disciplines and liberal democratic government (and as I hope to show, self-help markedly similar aims: that of promoting the realization of individuals while at the same time limiting their modes of self expression.

Foucault recognized government as a “code of conduct” for individuals – he claimed that proper analysis of political phenomena should be conducted by examining aims and practices, not specific institutions or metaphorical “state apparatuses.”

Foucault also claimed that government uses certain “technologies” in order to attain its aims and objectives. These technologies dictate how bodies, humans, behave and interact and align them with political goals. This idea of technology fragments into two distinct typologies: technologies of power and technologies of self. Technologies of power, according to Foucault, “determine the conduct of individuals and submit to certain ends or domination.” Technologies of self “permit individuals to effect by their own means, or with the help of others, a certain number of operations on their own bodies and souls, thoughts, conduct, and way of being, so as to transform themselves in order to attain a certain state of happiness, purity, wisdom, perfection, and mobility.” Technologies of power govern groups of people via an external source, and technologies of self allow and cause individuals to “govern” themselves. These two technologies merge in the “psy-disciplines” and its transmission by experts into self-help discourse. The individual subjected is “free” to produce himself, but only through the utilization of various discourses transmitted to him by the “authority” of the expert.

Using the above and additional Foucauldian techniques, I will attempt to analyze a specific self-help text: The Total Money Makeover, by James Ramey. By examining the text’s discourse and the practices it recommends I will profile the subject it produces, and situate this particular subject within current and cultural moment. I will also argue the potential political economic aims, objectives, and outcome that this subject and the discourse producing it reveals.



Present: Scott, Jordyn, Louis

Scribe: Scott Robinson

The Rhetoric of Empire inspired our group’s discussion this week. We spent time thinking about the structures that we have in place that reveal conditions of colonial discourse. Doing an analysis of African Art in relation to tourism gave made evident the extent to which colonial discourse is just as much present as it is past.  I will discuss 1- tourism and the Appropriation of African art, and 2- the “Made in China” stickers that can be found on ‘traditional’ artwork, clothing, and souvenirs.

Maasai Market – Why do we want to bring their culture home?

Africa, a continent of more than 1 billion people, is looked at as separate from the rest of the more developed world. Why? This week our group wanted to figure out the ‘appeal’ of Africa. We began by conversing about popular books, films, and media coverage of the continent on the whole. Our original views of the ‘Dark Continent’ came from The Lion King, The Last King of Scotland, and Blood Diamonds. We gradually narrowed are conversation into a discussion on the appropriation of African art, and the process of creating these simple, yet exotic, masterpieces. Generally, African art is made to be sold quickly with low production costs. Most of the ‘stuff’ used to create these souvenirs can be found locally… (Sandals made from old car tires, jewelry made from rubbish) meaning the costs should be relatively low, also. Souvenirs in Africa can sell for big money and Jordyn, Louis, and I believe this may all have to do with colonial discourse, regarding both the past and present. In Kenya, people dress up like the Massai and sell their traditional dress, bracelets, and key chains. Ironically, one time I was waiting at a border crossing and I saw a couple Kenyan women changing from their street clothes to their “Hollywood” attire. Why do these local people need to show us (the tourists) what we have been shown in Disney Films, and other popular media representations of Africa? Basically, you go to Africa with expectations and Africans have learned what you expect to see, so they conform in order to make money and extract wealth out of the tourism industry.

Recently, African Art, garments, and other souvenirs are being made in China. The local textile industry is disappearing and local people are exporting the production of their traditional goods. We didn’t really know what this means. I believe it goes to show that the ‘west’ has made less developed nations, especially in Africa, dependent on our neoliberal structure.  We quickly touched this issue of “Made in China” products and the colonial discourse present, but it would be interesting to see how this process of importing goods for export is also an applicable example of colonial discourse.

BUY TRADITIONAL AFRICAN ARTS HERE (MADE IN CHINA)

What do you think David Spurr would say about this cultural example of African Art in relation to the rhetorical mode of Appropriation?

Yoga has become a popular form of exercise and is practiced by many Americans, including myself.  However, the history of traditional yoga compared to the yoga practiced in the U.S. currently is very different.  Yoga is thought of as a health and fitness-oriented practice that dominates the global yoga scene of the twenty-first century.  However, the traditional Indian practice does not focus on the physical aspect of yoga. Most American “yogis” (including myself) believe yoga is a physical exercise with a spiritual component, yet as I have been researching traditional yoga it is the opposite; yoga is supposed to be a spiritual system with a physical component.  This false view is predominant: that yoga is a physical exercise program.

I plan on further researching traditional yoga because I know little of it and comparing it to modern yoga, particularly practiced in the U.S.  Yoga has turned into an industry as “yoga mats” and “yoga pants” are popular.

What is or before reading this, was your perception of yoga? How did globalization effect yoga, both practiced in its Indian traditional sense and the now popular exercise of the U.S.?

Our group decided to examine “Islamophobia” further. Gunther Dietz discussed Islamophobia in Spain, he claims it comes from a long running Arab rule of Spain and a fear of Islam spreading.  It was interesting because I took a history class on the Ottoman Empire, and at the end of the semester we examined Islamophobia in current society, including Europe.  We particularly focused on France, where controversial laws involving Muslims have been passed.  Two include the banning of head scarves in schools and the public ban on burkas, which cover the entire face of a Muslim woman, revealing only her eyes.  The French government claims it is for security reasons, however it has been protested and many Muslims feel it is an attack on their religion and identity.  I have been to France twice; the first time I was 16 and stayed with a host family in Nogent-le-Rotrou.  I left for a two day trip to Paris and before I left my host father approached me and said “careful, Paris has a lot of Arabs.”  His blatant statement was shocking; the thought had not crossed my mind.

Islamophobia has materialized due to the portrayal of Islam and Muslims as the “other,” just as Said discussed in “Orientalism.”  In the U.S., Islamophobia increased significantly after 9/11.  Islam seems to be associated with terrorism and politics, unlike most other religions.  Protests erupted when an Islamic community center, called Park51, began plans to build the center two blocks away from Ground Zero.  People referred to it as the “Ground Zero mosque” and claimed it was offensive to victims and families of 9/11 that died from Islamic terrorists.  Yet, many citizens do support Park51 and argue it is within their religious freedom to build it where they please.  As a New Yorker, I have no objection to the construction.  However many Republicans including McCain, Romney, and Gingrich oppose the construction.  The Former Speaker even went on to state: “It’s not about religion and is clearly an aggressive act that is offensive.” Commenting on the project’s initial proposed name, he wrote: “Cordoba House” is a deliberately insulting term. It refers to Cordoba, Spain – the capital of Muslim conquerors, who symbolized their victory over the Christian Spaniards by transforming a church there into the world’s third-largest mosque complex… every Islamist in the world recognizes Cordoba as a symbol of Islamic conquest.”  Once again, the history of Islam is brought up in this heated argument, while the Former Speaker ignored the violent past of Christianity.  The final comment I have on the discussion of Islamophobia is the remarkable article by Samuel Huntington: “The Clash of the Civilizations” which I have read for various government courses.  Huntington proposes that people’s cultural and religious identities will be the primary source of conflict in the post-Cold War world.  He wrote this theory in the early 1990s, well before the 9/11 attack.  While other political scientists thought differently, such as Francis Fukuyama, Huntington seemed to have predicted history.

Lastly, I wanted to post a humorous, but sadly true youtube video.  I am sure the other students have heard of these various videos going around.  One of my Muslim friends in D.C. shared this with me.  She wears a head scarf and is from Texas, where she told me racism and prejudice against Muslims is common. The video is titled “Shit White girls say to Arab girls.” My friend claimed while most of the comments are harmless, the stereotyping and ignorance happens to her frequently.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXpIR1qxBpM

Scribe- Julia

Present- Julia, Leslie

Please read the previous posts to gain more information from this Question/Response post.

Comment: Louis Scuderi from post: “Kony 2012” Part II: After A Month Long Critique of Part I

Very interesting project. I read this on a satirical blog recently: “Joseph Kony killed over 2,000 people but SLAYED 50 million page views online.”

I think this poses some compelling questions about the effects (or lack thereof) of “digital activism,” and, perhaps the notion of “trendy activism.” Have Joseph Kony and his exploits morphed (or, perhaps, “de-reified”) into social capital?

You make a great point Louis. Firstly, I believe this poses an interesting point of how uninformed our ‘general population’ is. Why is it that this news of Child Soldiers was not hitting the headlines of global news media corporations until a group of uninformed ‘kids’ ‘formed Invisible Children? Are they trying to create an emotionally appealing video about the generality of war in a secluded portion of the country or are they simply trying to raise awareness of an issue that has struck them very close to home?  Do you think that the war that was in northern Uganda that has since spread throughout other regions of Central Africa deserves (more) media footage? Is ‘digital activism’ one of the only ways that the general population can come together as a global community to learn about and initiate solutions for challenges all over the world? Also, is it dangerous to simplify a situation so much that it does not go above and beyond most peoples’ basic understandings of social equality in order to reach the masses? Or is that this simplistic design of the “War in Uganda” that Invisible Children depicts is a necessary advertising tool that should be used to raise awareness about global issues on the whole?

The Invisible Children Campaign stresses that their goal/mission for the project is to raise awareness of issues surrounding Child Soldiers and the LRA. To some extent, they have been extremely successful. I do not believe in everything that they are doing, however there is a point at which I must give them credit for putting Uganda on the world map, whether it be negatively or positively. No research paper or lengthy documentary will reach the same audiences as the initiatives that have been made by the Invisible Children Network, mainly through creative social media. I do question whether or not they should shift their focus as they gain more support or if they should continue with their current strategy of making people aware? Do you think that Invisible Children campaign has been implementing policies and procedures for the economic, political, and social growth of the African Community or is there story for another cause?

Is this a movement geared for white, privileged people, or is it actually a campaign to create and maintain human equality?

Help me in answering this Question:

Have Joseph Kony and his exploits morphed into social capital?

Yes, I believe people like Joseph Kony have morphed into social capital. From our generation alone, The War on Terror (Iraq), The Conflict in Afghanistan, The War in Lybia, etc… have created in some form or another social capital. But, I do anticipate that “Joseph Kony” may be a stepping stone for our generation in making our global community more active, global citizens? What do you think?

(I meant for this post to be about theory, and more specifically about David Spurr’s writings on the Rhetoric of Empire, but I couldn’t stop myself from trying to grasp this situation ‘a little’ better. I will be posting one more question/ answer section before I begin my analysis… Please continue using this space for discussion, as it is aiding my own understanding of “Kony 2012” as a Cultural Text.)

Tattoos have become a global phenomenon.  Everywhere you look, whether it be in a magazine or on TV you see tattooed bodies.  Musicians, actors/actresses and athletes all seem to sport some ink.  This tattoo craze also seems to cross boundaries all ages, races, and classes participate. The media now pushes aside people like bikers and prisoners, who are the people that traditionally sported tattoos, when discussing and evaluating tattoo cultures.  This is exclusion of bikers and prisoners from the discourse is a form of subjugated knowledge.  Tattoos in the past were not incorporated into the dominant culture but this is no longer the case.  In the 1990’s tattoos become emergent and were more visible around the world and they began to change the social formation that was in place.

How has the process of globalization effected the tattoo culture, on the local and on the global scale?

How do the residual notions that only gangsters and social outcasts get tattoos effect the emerging tattoo culture?